Human Trafficking

News about human trafficking, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Chronology of Coverage

Mar. 24, 2015

More than 60 women have had their criminal records cleared in New York under state law passed in 2010 that allows convictions related to sexual trafficking to be removed from a person's record. MORE

Mar. 19, 2015

Gail Collins Op-Ed column argues that Senate has reached new nadir of dysfunction, failing even to reach consensus on bill aiding victims of human trafficking; notes discord surrounds provision forbidding use of money to provide victims with access to abortions. MORE

Mar. 18, 2015

Bill to create fund for victims of sexual trafficking falls five votes short of passage in Congress as Democrats continue to object to anti-abortion provision Republicans attached to bill; Republicans say they will not vote on confirmation of Loretta E Lynch as attorney general until bill is resolved; impasse illustrates dysfunction that has come to characterize paralyzed Congress. MORE

Mar. 16, 2015

Sen Mitch McConnell says Senate will not vote on Loretta E Lynch's nomination to be attorney general until unrelated human trafficking bill receives vote; Democrats have said they will block bipartisan human trafficking bill because of anti-abortion provision attached to it. MORE

Mar. 13, 2015

Senators have come to loggerheads over bipartisan human trafficking bill, struggling to resolve impasse over provision that would ban money from victims' fund from being used for abortions; it remains unclear whether body can summon 60 votes required to end debate on bill. MORE

Mar. 11, 2015

Democratic lawmakers object to abortion provision Republicans attached to bipartisan bill designed to fight human trafficking, hindering passage of legislation that initially had wide support. MORE

Mar. 5, 2015

Editorial welcomes emerging consensus among lawmakers on new initiatives to confront domestic sex-trafficking in the United States; examines bills that would establish 'safe harbor' laws, provide new pool of financing for restitution, victim services and law enforcement, and begin prosecuting those who buy juvenile sex. MORE

Jan. 28, 2015

Pres Obama ends three-day visit to India with speech to 1,500 mostly young Indians at Siri Fort Auditorium; calls on country to do more fight human trafficking and slavery and to protect rights of women and girls; urges India to do also make more concerted effort in addressing climate change. MORE

Dec. 20, 2014

Michael Wilson Crime Scene column; Malu Custer Edwards, Micky Hurley and their four children, Chilean family from Manhattan who were vacationing in Italy, are denied re-entry into United States following lawsuit from their former nanny Felicitas del Carmen Villanueva Garnica, who is accusing them human trafficking. MORE

Nov. 25, 2014

United Nations' 2014 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons finds that one in three human trafficking victims is a child, most victims are female and that traffickers operate with little fear of prosecution; study shows that, in general, trafficking has increasingly become a problem around the world. MORE

Nov. 2, 2014

Nicholas Kristof Op-Ed column praises brave girls who are using lawsuits to fight back against website Backpage.com, suits that could have far-reaching implications for sex trafficking in America; contends what is at stake is unaddressed issue of sexual exploitation of children, not censorship of free speech or prostitution; underlines ways website impedes efforts of police and families to trace missing girls and boys. MORE

Oct. 23, 2014

Somaly Mam Foundation, Cambodia-based organization that worked against human trafficking and sexual exploitation, has closed five months after its founder resigned amid allegations of broad deception. MORE

Oct. 21, 2014

Experience of survivors of boat that capsized in Mediterranean while transporting Palestinian migrants to Europe illustrates how quickly human smuggling routes have coalesced in response to upheaval in the Arab world; survivors describe shipwreck as deliberate sinking on part of smugglers. MORE

Sep. 16, 2014

International Organization for Migration says human traffickers rammed boat filled with migrants they were smuggling from North Africa to Europe, making it sink in open sea and drowning hundreds of migrants; group says ramming happened after argument between traffickers and passengers, and only nine people of as many as 500 are known to have survived. MORE

Aug. 27, 2014

United Nations refugee agency reports record numbers of people from the Middle East and Africa are putting their lives in the hands of smugglers to get across the Mediterranean to Europe, and record numbers are dying in the effort; more than 300 asylum seekers and migrants died when three boats capsized or sank; UN is calling for urgent and concerted action by European governments. MORE

Jul. 8, 2014

Legislation enacted quietly by Pres George W Bush during transition to Obama administration is at root of the potentially calamitous flow of unaccompanied immigrant minors to nation's southern border; originally pushed as bill to combat sex trafficking, measure gave substantial protections to children entering the country alone by prohibiting them from being quickly sent back; Obama administration says law is partially responsible for tying its hands in dealing with current influx of children. MORE

Jun. 26, 2014

Area downstream of the Anzalduas Dam on the Rio Grande in Texas is a prime crossing ground for families and unaccompanied minors seeking to enter the United States; smugglers charge up to $7,500 for 'family packages,' bringing minors or mothers with children across the snake-infested, thorn-ridden bushland from Central America; more than 9,000 children traveling without their parents have been caught crossing border illegally in May alone, a record. MORE

Jun. 24, 2014

Jun. 22, 2014

Editorial, citing State Department report on human trafficking, warns that Thailand's thriving seafood trade is is deeply reliant on slave labor; calls on major global corporations to cease imports from fisherman or companies that have been identified as using slave labor, and argues that United States should withhold aid and assistance from countries like Thailand that refuse to crack down. MORE

Jun. 21, 2014

State Dept report finds that Thailand and Malaysia are among two dozen countries doing the least to fight human trafficking; finding could lead to economic and diplomatic penalties. MORE

Jun. 16, 2014

Isaias and Bonifacio Flores-Mendez are each sentenced to life in prison for smuggling hundreds of Mexican women across the border and forcing them into prostitution in and around New York City; are among 16 people who have pleaded guilty to charges in connection with sex-trafficking ring, which was broken up in April 2013. MORE

Jun. 15, 2014

Somaly Mam, one of Cambodia's most prominent social activists, had stepped down from United States-based charitable organization bearing her name after questions arose about her claim that she was orphan sold into sex slavery; her fall from grace highlights what aid workers in country say is widespread embellishment and in some cases outright deception in fund-raising, especially among the country's orphanages. MORE

Jun. 6, 2014

Fatou Bensouda, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, pledges to step up court's investigation and prosecution of sexual and gender-based crimes, including sexual slavery and forced prostitution, as crimes against humanity and war crimes; lengthy policy paper issued by Bensouda is her strongest effort to date to exhort both the court and national governments to pay more attention to such crimes. MORE

May. 30, 2014

Activist Somaly Mam resigns from foundation that bears her name amid allegations she and others connected to group fabricated stories about their experiences as young victims of sex trade; Newsweek reports that assertions about being sold into slavery and sex trafficking are untrue. MORE

May. 30, 2014

Op-Ed article by author Melissa Gira Grant reflects on resignation of Cambodian anti-trafficking icon Somaly Mam from her own foundation amid allegations of fraud; contends Mam's false stories and distorted efforts led to policies that harmed the very women she said she was trying to save; questions whether Mam's Western supporters understand the price of the falsehoods they were sold. MORE

May. 24, 2014

Saturday Profile; Argentinian Susana Trimarco has received international recognition for founding Fundacion Maria de los Angeles, nongovernmental organization that rescues and rehabilitates sex slaves in Argentina; Trimarco's daughter Maria was seized in 2002, and frustrated by an investigation she says was thwarted by a web of corruption, Trimarco set out to carve the issue of sex trafficking into the political agenda in Argentina. MORE

May. 8, 2014

Human rights investigators say threat by Boko Haram to sell kidnapped Nigerian girls highlights the shocking ease with which child trafficking continues in the developing world; buying and selling of women and children, particularly young girls, has long been a problem in certain areas. MORE

Apr. 20, 2014

Jim Dwyer About New York column describes story of Noemi Alvarez Quillay, 12-year-old Ecuadorian girl who committed suicide in Mexico after failing to illegally cross the border into the United States; notes that Noemi is part of a human tide of unaccompanied migrant children often left to the mercy of human traffickers that has swelled since 2011. MORE

Apr. 18, 2014

Mar. 15, 2014

Rohingya Muslims, minority denied citizenship and persecuted in Myanmar, pass through Thailand on their way to relative safety in Malaysia or, if they cannot afford to pay unscrupulous brokers, languish there; Thailand has denied to grant them temporary shelter or basic services. MORE

Feb. 28, 2014

The police have broken up four online businesses that matched prospective adoptive parents with children needing homes — in reality, baby traffickers, the police said. Some of the sites posed as public welfare interest groups, or disguised the babies as “gold jewelry.” MORE

Feb. 27, 2014

Nicholas Kristof Op-Ed column welcomes fact that police are beginning to arrest johns who visit prostitutes, and not just prostitutes themselves; holds shift indicates growing awareness of sex trafficking as serious human rights violation; says one of simplest ways to reduce scale of human trafficking is to arrest men who buy sex. MORE

Feb. 13, 2014

Nicholas Kristof Op-Ed column examines related issues of teenage runaways in America and prostitution of minors; contends teenage prostitution continues in part because of multiple societal failings, including racial bias; calls for increased national attention to problem. MORE

Feb. 12, 2014

Human Rights Watch reports that security officers in Egypt and Sudan have in some cases colluded with human traffickers who kidnap and torture Eritrean refugees in order to extort money from refugees' relatives. MORE

Feb. 6, 2014

Letters from New York State Atty Gen Eric Schneiderman and Caryl M Stern, president and chief executive, United States Fund for Unicef, respond to Feb 1 Op-Ed article by Kate Mogulescu urging steps to end human trafficking. MORE

Feb. 1, 2014

Op-Ed article by victims advocate Kate Mogulescu maintains there is no data to support widely-discussed 'surge' in sex trafficking around the Super Bowl and other large events; holds myth has led to harmful crackdowns on prostitutes in lead up to events, forcing victims into the criminal justice system rather than providing them the assistance they need. MORE

Jan. 14, 2014

Chinese court sentences obstetrician Zhang Shuxia to death but with two years' reprieve for stealing seven babies and selling them. MORE

Jan. 2, 2014

Nicholas D Kristof Op-Ed column shares the story of Marilaine, Haitian teenager who tried to find her family and escape her life as an unpaid laborer; notes that even after finding her family, Marilaine's story did not end happily; contends the story shows that what is at stake in fighting poverty is not just poor people's incomes, but also dignity and freedom. MORE

Dec. 9, 2013

Editorial welcomes anti-prostitution law passed by the French Parliament that will bring the country in line with a growing consensus that it makes better sense to treat prostitutes as victims rather than as criminals; maintains exploitation of sex workers in increasingly true in Europe with increase in trafficking of foreign women, including underage girls, to work in foreign countries. MORE

Nov. 7, 2013

Nicholas D Kristof Op-Ed column contends it is important to remember that slavery has not been entirely abolished in the United States, since victims of human trafficking can fairly be called modern versions of slaves; suggests one way to rectify situation is by arresting and punishing pimps rather than customers of prostitutes, many of whom are forced to work in the sex trade. MORE

Oct. 15, 2013

Editorial contends the drowning of hundreds of African migrants off the Italian coast, along with subsequent accidents, are human tragedies that demand more attention from Europe and beyond; calls for increased sanctuary, expanded search-and-rescue operations, and a serious effort to combat human trafficking. MORE

Oct. 13, 2013

Nicholas D Kristof Op-Ed column highlights story of Shelia Fay Simpkins, former prostitute who received aid from a Vanderbilt University program that helps women escape trafficking and prostitution; contends her story shows that the fight against sex trafficking, which exists all over the United States, is not hopeless. MORE

Sep. 26, 2013

New York State is creating statewide system of specialized criminal courts to handle prostitution cases and provide services to help steer women away from sex trafficking's cycle of exploitation and arrest; initiative is believed to be first of its kind in nation and will use social services and specially trained court officers to help victims. MORE

Sep. 26, 2013

Editorial welcomes creation of nation's first statewide system of specialized criminal courts to handle prostitution-related offenses in New York; notes system will also make services available to help sex-trafficking victims escape their abusive situations and forge new lives. MORE

Sep. 1, 2013

Exposures column by photographer and journalist Katie Orlinsky describes her project documenting the growing problem of sex trafficking and unsafe migration along the Nepal-India border; warns that the number of trafficked women continues to grow. MORE

Jul. 30, 2013

Federal Bureau of Investigation says that nationwide operation has led to arrests of 159 men in more than 70 cities who are charged with forcing about 105 teenage girls to work as prostitutes, some as young as 13 years old. MORE

Jul. 9, 2013

Vincent George Sr and son Vincent George Jr are sentenced to three to nine years in prison; pair, convicted on charges of money laundering and promoting prostitution, had been acquitted of more serious sex-trafficking charges. MORE

Jun. 26, 2013

Peruvian woman Maria Rios Fun files lawsuit against Marita Puertas Pulgar, Peru's top diplomat to United Nations, and her partner Alexis Aquino Albegrin, claiming that she was entrapped in a life of involuntary servitude in New Jersey suburbs, forced to work as many as 16 hours a day, 7 days a week for little or no compensation. MORE

Jun. 20, 2013

State Department accuses Russia, China and Uzbekistan of continuing to abet human trafficking and forced labor, raising possibility that they could face sanctions at a time when Pres Obama has tried to maintain relations with each on strategic issues. MORE

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Over 60 women have had their records cleared under a New York State law that treats those forced to become prostitutes as victims, making it easier for them to find jobs and overcome financial hardship.

March 24, 2015, Tuesday

The Senate's 100 members don't agree on much. They agreed they wanted legislation to help the victims of sex trafficking. Then the bill got caught up in the emotional and uncompromising politics of abortion.

For the second time in two days, the U.S. Senate on Wednesday failed to break a legislative deadlock that has left the fate of a human trafficking bill in doubt and put U.S. attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch in limbo.